TrapIt4Life said:
I taught in WISD for a few years (University High School) before eventually switching to Midway, and am also the parent of two younger kids.
You could not *pay* me to send my kids to Waco ISD. I can't speak to their elementary schools, but at least at the high school level, it was an absolute s*&t show. The inability to level any discipline whatsoever hamstrings any chance to employ some semblance of classroom management.
I would routinely have kids who would threaten me physically, throw supplies, hit other students, swear at me like a sailor with Tourettes, and when I would call down to the office, basically the refrain I would get was, "yeah, office is full, you're just going to have to deal with it". They would refuse to suspend them (that's what the student wants to happen anyway, woo-hoo, no school), they wouldn't expel them, because they need the funding per enrolled students, and the alternative school was always full.
On multiple occasions I was told to give the QB of the football team, who did not show up from about September 4th until late November, "somewhere in the high B to low A range" on all his missed assignments. I refused to give someone grades they hadn't earned, and was called in to meet with the principal at the time and a WISD board member suggesting that I give him those grades if I wanted to continue working there. I refused, and fortunately found a great landing spot at MHS, and the difference was night and day.
Anyone who tells you that WISD is sunshine and roses and an equally great academic atmosphere to MHS or these other charters is deluding themselves. There is zero accountability, and while many of the teachers are well-meaning and have patience for bulls*&^ beyond what I could handle, until they devise a system to deal with the bad apples, and/or start to engage parents into actually caring about their own kids, it would be a cold, cold day in hell before I ever let me kids walk through their doors.
Your story is the same as what happens at Waco high.
Part of the problem is state and federal mandates. If a district punishes too many minority students it raises flags and the get people from Austin asking why so many minorities are going to DAEP, ISS or being suspended. They don't care if your school is 90% minority. They just look at the ethnic make up of the ones in trouble.
I would have recorded that meeting with the board member and turned them in as that is highly illegal what they did.
WISD has great opportunities for AP students and their dual credit program. But I'm not sure that is worth the other stuff the kids have to put up with in other classes, the hall ways, lunch, etc.
The district, like all districts in TX, have their hands tied on being able to control discipline though. Rules like the ones I mentioned before. Or the ones around special ed students being out of service, age restrictions for suspensions, ISS, etc. handed down by the state.
But your last point is spot on. Until parents care WISD (and all schools across the state/country) can't improve.
